Financial Support

The Graduate Vice Chair (GVC) oversees the awarding of financial support for all graduate students. The GVC appoints teaching assistants, allocates Graduate Division funds, and nominates students for University Fellowships.The Graduate Vice Chair oversees the awarding of financial support for all graduate students. The GVC appoints teaching assistants, allocates Graduate Division funds, and nominates students for University Fellowships.

Faculty members award Research Assistantships (RAs) to individual students. Students are selected as RAs for their promise as creative scholars and to assist faculty with their scholarly research.

In April, students not on guaranteed support can submit a financial support application to the Graduate Office. These are reviewed by the GVC. By mid-June all Ph.D. students are notified about their financial support for the upcoming academic year. Questions and/or appeals regarding support should be directed to the GVC.

Policies & Regulations

It is the student's responsibility to read the Academic Apprentice Personnel Manual for complete details regarding University regulations for academic apprentice personnel positions (TA, RA, Reader). University policy is that, absent extraordinary circumstances, graduate students may not be TAs for more than 12 quarters. In all circumstances, graduate students may not hold a combination of TA/RA appointments for more than 18 quarters.

Teaching Assistantship

TAs play a fundamental role in teaching at UCLA. In general, among other responsibilities, TAs lead discussion sections, hold office hours, help proctor and grade examinations, and, for advanced courses, grade homework. TAs work closely with instructors and provide them feedback on the course. A TA's workload may vary somewhat from quarter to quarter according to the nature of the courses and the work requested by the instructor. Conscientious teaching, good student evaluations, and satisfactory degree progress are necessary for renewals of TA-ships.

All graduate students must take Math 495 as a requirement for TA-ing. This must be done either before or concurrently with their first quarter of TA-ing. It is offered only in the fall and is preceded by a mandatory 2-day intensive training. For details, contact the Graduate Advisor.

The fees of Teaching Assistants are normally remitted (i.e. cancelled). To be eligible for fee remissions students must be enrolled in at least 12.0 units of coursework. Students who TA in a given quarter, and who fail to enroll in 12 units or more of coursework, must pay their own fees.

Pay levels:
TAships are awarded at the following three levels: (Students are responsible for informing the Graduate Advisor when they are eligible for promotion.)

Teaching Assistant: students who have neither a Master's degree nor 36 units of graduate coursework.

Teaching Associate: students who have a Master's degree or 36 units of graduate coursework and one year of college teaching experience. Previous college teaching may be applied with approval from the GVC.

Teaching Fellow: students who have been formally advanced to candidacy for the doctorate and have two years of college teaching experience.

Research Assistantship

Many graduate students receive Fellowships and Research Assistantships. To be eligible for fee remissions RAs must be enrolled in 12.0 units.

Pay Levels:
RAships are awarded at the following four levels: (Students are responsible for informing the Graduate Advisor when they are eligible for a higher level.)

Step 1: students who do not have a Master's degree and do not have previous RAship experience.

Step 2: students who have a Master's degree or have completed at least 36 units of graduate level course work at UCLA.

Step 3: students who have completed at least two academic year of full-time graduate study at UCLA and have at least one year of RAship experience.

Step 4: students who have been formally advanced to candidacy, and have at least two years of RAship experience.

Readerships

The Department employs a number of students (both graduate and undergraduate) as readers to grade homework papers. All readers must have at least a 3.2 GPA and must have taken at least two years of college calculus. Graduate student readers must be making satisfactory degree progress. Applications are accepted at various times throughout the year. Like TAships, Readerships usually provide fee remission in addition to income.

Nonresident Tuition Fellowships

The Department has a limited number of fellowships to cover non-resident tuition. All United States citizens who receive such fellowships for their first year are required to establish California residency by their second year. The Department and the University (for those on University fellowships) will not pay non-resident tuition after the first year for citizens or permanent residents. Information on establishing residency is available at the Office of the Registrar- Residence Deputy, 1134 Murphy Hall.

University and Extramural Fellowships

The Graduate Division notifies students via email during the fall quarter when the application and publication, "Graduate Student Support for Continuing Students," is available. The publication describes in detail University fellowships. The GVC reviews all fellowship applications and decides which students to nominate. Departments submit a limited number of fellowship applications.

Students interested in extramural support should obtain the Graduate Division publication, "Graduate and Postdoctoral Extramural Support".

Guaranteed Support

Students who enter the program with "Guaranteed Support" are assured support for the duration of the time stated in their admission letter, and at whatever levels are promised, provided they make satisfactory progress towards their degree, competently perform the work that their TAships, RAships and Readerships require, and avoid certain pitfalls. Satisfactory progress is defined as maintaining a 3.0 GPA, and completing qualifying exams according to the schedule in this handbook, and advancing to candidacy by the end of the fourth year. Competence in a job performance is measured via faculty and student evaluation. Pitfalls include changing math disciplines (e.g. from pure to applied or vice-versa), leaves of absence, or resigning a TAship without permission. If a student is considering a leave, resigning a TAship or changing discipline, he or she must explain this intention to the GVC in order to learn its impact on the funding guarantee.

There is no grace period in these matters and default position is to terminate any guarantee of funding if any of these events takes place. Actual funding status goes by quarter, not by year. For example, a student who fails to pass a Qualifying Exam by a satisfactory progress deadline in September will be supported according to their package for that academic year only through the fall quarter. In the winter quarter the student may have lower or no financial support.

Fifth year support is not guaranteed, but may be possible for students who have advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. prior to the beginning of their fifth year. The following criteria is used by the GVC to determine fifth year support 1) availability of funding 2) expected progress towards thesis completion by the end of the fifth year as documented by letter from thesis advisor 3) university limits on total amount of student employment.